THE RACERS, PART IV.

By Peter M. DeLorenzo

Detroit. Racing a car, motorcycle or anything with some sort of power is a pursuit like no other. It is a passionate endeavor requiring an obsessive single-mindedness that consumes the people involved to a degree that outsiders find hard to understand. Ask any driver who has competed at the top level, and they will tell you that there is nothing half-assed about what they do, because the focus required is almost incomprehensible. Drivers talk about being in "the zone" - a strange state of mind that takes over their entire being while they're racing - when the faster they go the more things seem to slow down for them. They're aware of everything around them, but at the same time their focus at the task at hand is impenetrable, because anything less can result in a mistake that will likely have severe consequences. Racers are indeed a rare breed, willing to sacrifice everything for the pursuit of what they love to do, to the detriment of everything else. These racers have left an indelible mark on the sport. Drivers who were fierce competitors, flawed heroes and incredible, gifted talents. Their legacies are what make the sport of motor racing so fascinating. This week, we look back at the careers of all-time greats Sir Stirling Moss, Phil Hill, Parnelli Jones and Mario Andretti.
Gifted and brilliant behind the wheel, Sir Stirling Crauford Moss was a spectacular force who became the quintessential definition of a British Grand Prix driver. Known as "the greatest driver never to win a World Championship," Moss finished second four times and third three times in the F1 standings between 1955 and 1961. Moss won sixteen times in 66 starts, driving in various machines including Cooper, HWM, Lotus, Maserati, Mercedes Benz and Vanwall. Moss famously won the Mille Miglia (with co-driver and auto journalist Denis Jenkinson) in 1955, completing the race distance in ten hours and seven minutes. It is considered one of the epic drives in motorsports history. Moss admitted afterward that he had been given a "magic pill" by Juan Manuel Fangio before the race. Although he didn't know what was in it specifically, Dexedrine and Benzedrine were commonly used in rallies and long-distance events, and Moss said, "the object was simply to keep awake, like wartime bomber crews." Moss also won the 1958 12 Hours of Sebring driving an Aston Martin DBR1, and recorded three consecutive wins in the Nurburgring 1000 km race in 1958, 1959 and 1960. (The first two of those wins were in Aston Martin DBR1s, the last was in a Maserati Tipo 61 "birdcage" co-driven by Dan Gurney.) Among the many brilliant drives delivered by Moss, another one that stands out was in the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, when Moss, driving a relatively under-powered Lotus 19/21-Climax for Rob Walker, won by 3.6-seconds, stunning the factory V6-powered Ferrari 156 "sharknose" entries, boasting a driver lineup of Phil Hill, Richie Ginther and Wolfgang von Trips. Sir Stirling's spectacular driving career came to an end after he crashed his Lotus heavily in the Glover Trophy race at Goodwood, on April 23, 1962. The accident put him in a coma for a month, and the left side of his body was paralyzed for six months. Moss participated in a private test session the following year at Goodwood in a Lotus 19, and even though he lapped a few tenths of a second slower than before his accident, he felt that in his heart it just wasn't there for him, and he retired from driving. Moss passed away on April 12, 2020, in London, at the age of 90.
Philip Toll Hill Jr. was the first American - and only American-born - driver to win the Formula 1 World Championship (1961). (Mario Andretti, only the second American ever to win the World Championship, was born in Italy.) Phil Hill competed in F1 from 1955 - 1964, and for one more year (1966) driving various machines including ATS, Cooper, Eagle, Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren and Porsche. The Californian began driving for Enzo Ferrari in 1959, recording three podiums and finishing fourth in the final F1 Championship standings. Hill won the 1960 Italian Grand Prix at Monza driving a Ferrari 246, becoming the first American driver to win a Grand Prix since Jimmy Murphy won the 1921 French Grand Prix. It also marked the last time a front-engined machine won a Grand Prix race. In 1961, Hill won the Belgian Grand Prix, and with two races left in the season and heading to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, he trailed only his teammate, Wolfgang von Trips, in the Championship. But that race would become one of the most tragic days in the history of F1, as von Trips crashed and was killed, along with fourteen spectators. Hill went on to win the race - his third and final Grand Prix win - but it proved to be bittersweet, to say the least. It would be compounded by the fact that Enzo Ferrari withdrew his team from the final F1 race at Watkins Glen, New York, thus preventing Hill from competing in his home race as the new World Champion. 1962 would be Hill's last driving for Ferrari in F1. He was famously quoted as saying, "I no longer have as much as I need to race, to win. I don't have as much hunger anymore. I am no longer willing to risk killing myself." But besides being America's first World Champion, Hill was spectacular in sports cars, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times driving a Ferrari with co-driver Olivier Gendebien (1958, 1961, 1962). Hill's 1958 win was also the first for an American driver in the French endurance classic. Hill also won the 12 Hours of Sebring three times. He won it in 1958 with co-driver Peter Collins in a Ferrari 250 TR; in 1959 in a Ferrari 250 TR59 with co-drivers Olivier Gendebien, Chuck Daigh and Dan Gurney; and in 1961 with Olivier Gendebien in a Ferrari TRI61. Hill was the lead driver on the initial Ford GT effort, and continued to drive Ford GTs from '63 - 65. Hill also drove for Jim Hall in the Can-Am in 1966 driving the Chaparral 2E Chevrolet, delivering a huge win against the best in the series at Laguna Seca. Hill also won the 1966 Nurburgring 1000 km in the Chaparral 2D Chevrolet with co-driver Jo Bonnier and the 1967 BOAC 1000 km at Brands Hatch with Mike Spence in the Chaparral 2F Chevrolet. Hill retired from driving after that race. Hill had a thriving classic car restoration business in retirement. He died on August 28, 2008, in Monterey, California. My Phil Hill story? I was designated to pick him up at Detroit Metropolitan Airport for a press event in the spring of 1983 (I had never met him). By the time he arrived from California, it was early evening and very dark because of looming thunderstorms. As we made our way to the suburban hotel that I was to deliver him to, it started raining fairly hard. My car was an Audi GT at the time - with the raked windshield - and I had just put a fresh coat of Rain-X on it that morning. As I said, it was pitch black out, but I didn't put the wipers on because I didn't need to (Rain-X was relatively new at the time). All of a sudden, Phil blurted out, "What the hell is that?" as the sound of the pelting rain slammed into the windshield. I said it was the rain, and he said, "Why aren't you using your wipers?" And then I explained what Rain-X was and he was flabbergasted... and excited. "That is fantastic! If I had had that at Le Mans... in the rain... at night. Amazing!" He couldn't get over it all the rest of the way there. My brief experience with Phil? He was a cool dude, and a very gracious man.
Rufus Parnelli Jones could drive anything, anywhere, at any time - and win. And he was one of the toughest competitors that ever got behind the wheel of a racing car. He was the first driver to average over 150 mph at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, winning the pole with a speed of 150.370 mph in 1962. He won the Indy 500 in 1963, and he was dominating the 1967 Indy 500 in Andy Granatelli's STP Turbine-powered machine when it broke down with just three laps to go. He won in midgets, sprint cars, stock cars, at Pikes Peak (winning in a Mercury Marauder prepared by Bill Stroppe in 1963, while setting a new stock car record), and even in off-road machines, winning the Mexican 1000, Baja 500 and Mint 400 in his "Big Oly" Bronco. My favorite memories of Parnelli, however, were from the 1967-1970 SCCA Trans-Am seasons when he wheeled a factory Bud Moore Mercury Cougar ('67) and Ford Mustang Boss 302s ('68-'70). Parnelli was absolutely spectacular in those Mustangs, battling Mark Donohue in the Penske Camaros (1968-69) and Penske Javelin (1970) and even his own teammate - George Follmer - in that milestone 1970 season, when the best factory and independent drivers in American road racing went at it, week-in and week-out. Parnelli asked no quarter and gave no quarter - he and George banged each other off of the race track twice during the 1970 Mid-Ohio Trans-Am round - and he delivered the Trans-Am Championship to Ford that season. Parnelli went into car ownership after retiring from driving, starting Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing and winning the Indy 500 in 1970 and 1971 with Al Unser driving the "Johnny Lightning Special." The team also won the USAC National Championship in 1970, 1971 and 1972. Jones is in every Hall of Fame you can thing of, and deservedly so, but I will always remember him willing his Mustang to victory in that 1970 Trans-Am season. Parnelli was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, in August 23, 1933. He is now 87 years old.
What can be said about Mario Gabriele Andretti, other than the fact that he is one of the greatest racing drivers of all time? The Italian-born American is one of only three drivers to win in Formula 1, Indy-type cars, World Championship sports cars, and in NASCAR. (Dan Gurney and Juan Pablo Montoya were the other two.) Mario became only the second American driver to win the Formula 1 World Championship when he won it in 1978 driving a Lotus-Ford for Colin Chapman. In fact, no American racing driver has won an F1 race since Mario won the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. Besides his F1 exploits, Mario won four championships in Indy cars (one in CART and three in USAC), he won the Daytona 500 in 1967, and the 1969 Indianapolis 500 driving for Andy Granatelli. Mario was named United States Driver of the Year in three decades: 1967, 1978 and 1984. Mario is one of only three drivers to have won on road courses, paved ovals and dirt tracks in the same year, and he did it five times. After Mario scored his final Indy car win in April 1993, he became the first driver to have won Indy car races in four different decades. Mario won 109 major races during his spectacular career. Besides his Indy 500 win in 1969 (and missing out on so many others), my most memorable wins for Mario were the 1967 Daytona 500 and the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring. Discounted by the NASCAR establishment, Mario was in the No. 11 Ford Fairlane prepared by Holman & Moody for the race, and the team was split as to whether or not they were supporting the Italian-American interloper. His teammate was the great Fred Lorenzen, but it was clear after practice and qualifying that Mario had been given a engine that was down on power. He made his displeasure known to Ford - it was a one-off race for Mario - and he was given a new engine for the race. The only problem was that Mario had set up his car in qualifying super-loose to compensate for the lack of power, which meant that in the race he would be forced to hang the rear end out and dirt track it for the entire 500 miles if he wanted to go fast. Which is exactly what Mario did in a jaw-dropping display of car control the likes of which the NASCAR boys had never seen. But Mario had one more hurdle thrown at him before his trip to Victory Lane. He made his last pit stop at the same time as Lorenzen, but the pro-Lorenzen Holman & Moody crew kept Mario up on the jack stands until Freddie got down to the end of the pit lane. Furious, Mario caught and passed Lorenzen and went on to win. It was a very unpopular victory in NASCAR Land, but for Mario it was one of his greatest performances. The 1970 12 Hours of Sebring was another incredible performance by Mario. Driving for the factory Ferrari team (with co-driver Arturo Merzario), Mario put the No. 19 Ferrari 512 S on the pole, almost one second clear of the factory No. 14 Gulf Porsche 917K driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman. Another interesting entry was the No. 48 Porsche 908/02 driven by Peter Revson and actor Steve McQueen. McQueen had a cast on his foot which made it extremely difficult to drive, so Revson did the majority of the driving in the race. (Mario was irked that McQueen garnered all of the attention from the press, knowing full well that the fate of the No. 48 machine rested on Revson's shoulders.) After Mario and his teammate either led or were up front most of the race, the No. 19 Ferrari had to be retired with gearbox issues with 30 minutes left in the race. Ferrari team leader Mauro Forghieri made the decision to pull Ignazio Giunti out of the No. 21 Ferrari 512 S and put Andretti in, because Mario was quicker. Though the No. 21 Ferrari was a lap down to Siffert and Revson, who were running 1-2, Mario went out and turned in lap after lap at qualifying speeds, un-lapping himself in short order. As Mario set out to run down the leaders, Siffert's Porsche 917 was suddenly out of the race with front suspension failure, and Revson took over the lead. Mario got past Revson, only to have to give up the lead again when he had to make a last-gasp pit stop for fuel. Mario entered the track with one lap to go in the race, and delivered a blistering last lap to blow by Revson for the win. It was a truly magnificent - and memorable - performance. The 1970 12 Hours of Sebring was another incredible performance by Mario (watch here). Mario was born on February 28, 1940; he will be 81 next month.